The Coffee Table (August 2005): Columns

Usually the summer time is a slow month for games since most publishers would rather rather flood the market a couple months later with new titles just in time for Christmas, and then wonder why the sales numbers weren't all that great. This passed August, though, actually turned out to be pretty busy with new Xbox 360 info, and some high-profile game releases. Omni and Mr. Nash are back at it again for this new Coffee Table, discussing the gaming goings on for August.

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Coffee Table

(August 2005)

Omni:

Where do we start for August?

Mr. Nash:

Xbox 360 packages?

Omni:

I really wish someone would explain the logic of Microsoft going this route, because what I've heard from the official mouthpieces (Allard, Moore) doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And creating a $100US price gap between the two doesn't make sense either. I mean, how much will a memory card cost?

Mr. Nash:

I fully expect most developers to tailor their games to the HDD-less 360. They'll target the lowest common denominator to sell the most products I reckon.

Omni:

Which is incredible. It's one feature that the Xbox had over the PS2 -- a built in hard drive. With the release of the PS2 hard drive did we see a lot of games that absolutely needed the device?

And I agree that developers will have to cater to the lowest common denominator... Who knows, maybe the "deluxe" package will sell so well Microsoft won't bother selling the "plain" version.

Mr. Nash:

On top of that, a lot of people won't be able to take advantage of backwards compatibility from the 360. Hardly any developers took advantage of the PS2 hard drive. The only notable game to use it was Final Fantasy XI, other than that the peripheral has been a glorified memory card for me.

Microsoft should have just went for one $350US system with a HDD, and none of the other fancy stuff. That would solve a lot of the problems. At $400US, the deluxe will be a boutique item for most people. Doing the math, in order to get a system, extra controllers, and a few games will run $600US at least. Converting it to Canadian dollars, and that soars to close to a grand. The way prices are going, I think a lot of people are going to hold on to their current generation consoles a lot longer. Hell, it's cheaper to upgrade one's PC at this rate.

Omni:

Definitely.

Big games that shipped this month: Madden and Nintendogs! While Madden is surely doing booming business being the only NFL game in town at the moment, Nintendogs came out with some strong sales numbers.

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Mr. Nash:

Nintendogs looks neat, and Madden is getting requisite comments in reviews that its the only NFL licensed game available this year. It's nice to see that the quirkiness of Nintendogs is catching on here, and not just in Japan. Now they need to get that brain testing game for the DS out over here. Oh, and Electroplankton. That game looks sweet.

Omni:

It's a lot like the Sims, Nintendogs, in its broad appeal. And damn those puppies are cute!

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Mr. Nash:

So who's playing the game more, you or the kids?

Omni:

Me mostly but it's not going so well. My dog -- Sushi -- has fleas. But a major downside to the game is that I feel like a complete idiot playing it in public. Bathroom fodder for sure, but then you'll have people wondering what you're doing in there saying "roll over" again and again.

Mr. Nash:

Yeah, it looks like a game where it's difficult to retain that manly man je ne sais quoi when walking down the street while playing it.

Omni:

More evidence that Acclaim just won't die! (from Gamasutra): Though Acclaim was dissolved after going bankrupt roughly one year ago, its founders are still dealing with the fallout over the company's closing. Greg Fischbach and James Scoroposki, co-founders of Acclaim, have been hit with a suit by one of the trustees of the liquidated assets over mismanagement and wasteful practices.

Most of the charges in the $150 million lawsuit deal with alleged methods of using companies related in some way to either Fischbach or Scoroposki for contracting, and paying the contractors unnecessary amounts. Acclaim's marketing firms, for example, were owned by Scoroposki, and the company's law firm counted as one of its partners Fischbach's brother.

The trustee also complained that nearly $800,000 worth of art that once hung in the offices, which presently has an even higher market value, was missing from the offices when the trustee came to take stock of the building. Hooks where the art may have once hung were still on the walls, empty of any contents. Fischbach and Scoroposki did not comment on the suit.

And as the Gaming Age forums have pointed out, Acclaim's website is supposedly still running: http://www.acclaim.com/

I think the gaming industry should be described as Darwinian -- survival of the fittest! Death to the dummies!

Mr. Nash:

Meh, they aren't coming back. The only thing I want to see rise from the ashes of Acclaim is someone releasing The Red Star. That game looks really good, and the demo was fun. I don't know if the industry should get too Darwinian, though. Some companies are quite strong, but their games are safe, not interesting.

Omni:

Agreed some games just need to see the light of day -- which is what I hope happens with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Delayed until April 2006? Yikes!

Mr. Nash:

Well, it's not like Nintendo would scrap the game. It's a title obviously targeted at the longtime fans of the company. It'll do well no matter what. It's likely to be the last great game to come out on the Cube, so they might as well try and make it extra special.

Omni:

That's the official line, at any rate. But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting Nintendo execs were asked if the game could be delayed. April 2006 is a long ways off.

Mr. Nash:

I really don't see it effecting their bottom line too much, considering how the DS is doing. I think their fiscal year ends in June-ish, so I'm sure the suits aren't going to cry themselves to sleep over a Zelda delay. Heck, maybe they think the original release date for the game would distract people from their DS line-up come Christmas, and that's really why the game is being delayed.

Omni:

I can see it from a marketing standpoint for sure, but it still stings. Majesco canceling the Advent Rising / Xbox Live $1,000,000 contest. That seemed doomed from the start didn't it?

Mr. Nash:

Damn near any game-related contest that says they're giving away a million bucks makes me highly skeptical. It just makes the company doing it seem desperate to promote a likely to be so-so game.

Omni:

They dumped the contest and are offering people that bought Advent Rising a couple of free games instead, but I'm not sure on the details. But for the love of money, get Psychonauts if you bought Advent Rising!

Mr. Nash:

I think it's over for Psychonauts. We'll need a major miracle in order to turn that one around. Might be worth buying as a collector's item at this rate, though.

Omni:

Not many may know about it, but NCSoft announced the winners of their 2nd Annual City of Heroes Film Festival. It's worth checking out, even if you're not a fan. On top of that, from September 1st to 6th NCSoft is allowing people with lapsed accounts to play for free to check all the new content.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/media/film_festival_winners_2005.html

Mr. Nash:

Man, NCSoft is really establishing itself as an MMO juggernaut these days. They have City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage II on the market (granted the majority of those who like the latter all live in Korea), and Auto Assault, and Tabula Rasa are on the way. I wonder just how much those guys rake in each month.

Omni:

It's good to see actually. I thought all the MMORPGs were going to implode. But World of WarCraft released some numbers this month -- 1 million subscribers in North America alone -- that just stun me.

Mr. Nash:

Hopefully NCSoft will do something like Sony did where players paid a little more, but could play most of SoE's MMOs under one account. The only risk NCSoft may run in the future is fragmenting their audience. If they offer some sort of master account where players can use CoH, GW, AA, and TR all for, say, $25US per month, possibly $30US, that would be pretty nifty.

Omni:

I'm sure they have a marketing staff figuring all this stuff out. It's too much of a cash cow! What's a monthly subscription to WoW cost?

Mr. Nash:

$15US, though pricing works differently in China. I think it works out that Blizzard is pocketing over $40 Million US per month off of all their WoW subscribers.

Omni:

And that's not taking into account the initial $50 to buy the game.

Mr. Nash:

Yeah, it's nuts. I hope they announce an expansion at BlizzCon later this fall. Azeroth is starting to feel a little small these days.

Omni:

What other interesting stuff happened this month?

Heroes of the Pacific found a publisher in UbiSoft. I'm glad because that game looked sweet at E3 2004.

Mr. Nash:

Not much. It started with rage over the 360 pricing debacle, but was soothed by puppies in the end.

Omni:

The Doom movie is getting closer... and it doesn't look all that bad. Shocking!

Mr. Nash:

And Halo got the green light too. Granted MS didn't get anywhere near the deal they wanted.

Omni:

What news from Japan?

Mr. Nash:

Square wants to buy Taito, but that's largely for their mobile games. We'll have to wait a few weeks for the really interesting stuff to flow out of Japan, since that's when the Tokyo Games Show happens. Then we can see plenty of PS3 / Revolution / game-related stuff. I'm hoping we see some mind-blowing stuff announced for the PSP at the show. As it stands, that handheld is mind-numbingly underwhelming.

Omni:

And possibly Microsoft will show up?

Mr. Nash:

I'm sure Microsoft will show up, but the real question will be whether or not anyone cares. I reckon Square-Enix is pretty pissed off at them right now considering the publisher was under the assumption that the 360 would come standard with a HDD. That was the main reason that they agreed to make games for the console...which is kinda weird seeing as the first Xbox had one, and they didn't support that system.

Omni:

We've come full circle on a topic! That doesn't happen often.

Mr. Nash:

Uh oh, before you know it we'll start giving off an air of competency too. Scary.

Omni:

Never!

Mr. Nash:

We almost forgot the most important thing to happen in the game industry in August: AE's fifth anniversary. I'm sure everyone was waiting with on the edge of their seats for that one!

Omni:

It's September now so I've finally come down from the high that was AE's Fifth Anniversary. It's a great milestone! Five years doesn't seem like that long at first, but when you start looking at it seriously... it's a long time.

Mr. Nash:

Now we gotta make our way to the 10 year mark.

Omni:

It's only five years from now. Duke Nukem Forever might even be out by then!

Jeff:

I feel strangely compelled to make a snarky remark right about now.

Omni:

I'll close it out with a few other notable releases. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction came out to good reviews (still waiting on review copies myself). What else?

Mr. Nash:

Hmmm, Darkwatch?

Omni:

Namco Musuem 50th Anniversary -- possbily the best soundtrack ever.

Mr. Nash:

Taito's classics compellation came out in Japan. Oh, and Jump Super Stars as well. All the good stuff comes out between September and December

Omni:

Here it comes. The precursor to the 4th Quarter!

Mr. Nash:

Time to see which game becomes a huge hit, and consequently completely screws over the sales numbers for every other game released over that time frame. Weeeee!

Omni:

Good times. Then after few months, when all the numbers are in, companies will release less than forecasted sales numbers.

Mr. Nash:

Followed by predictions on who will file for Chapter 11. It's hard to tell who will croak next these days, since the obvious ones (Titus, Acclaim, 3DO) have already fallen.

Omni:

Interplay is still alive! Just barely anyway, but still alive.

Mr. Nash:

I thought they auctioned off all their stuff to pay off creditors.

Omni:

Like I say, almost dead!

Mr. Nash:

Nothing spells fun like closing on a cynical note.

Omni:

END.

(September 6, 2005)